Endangered Species

The Montezuma County commission and San Juan Basin Farm Bureau have publicly come out against a fledgling proposal to create a National Conservation Area on the Lower Dolores River. Citing concerns that the designation could result in additional water being released downstream from McPhee Reservoir, the commissioners voted 3-0 to oppose any such plan.

State and federal biologists have been trying to protect the greenback cutthroat trout ever since it was included on the first-ever Endangered Species Act list in 1973. But in 2007, a University of Colorado study cast doubt on whether the fish they'd been saving were actually greenbacks at all.

Much of the snowpack in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado is already gone, but it seems to be blowing away in the wind rather than melting into the state’s streams and rivers. That has water managers scrambling to cope with the state’s fourth consecutive very dry year.

Seasonal storms have exposed once more some perennial political divisions over California water. Citing the latest rainfall, seven of the state’s lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to free up more irrigation deliveries for San Joaquin Valley farms. The muscular Capitol Hill lineup is noticeable both for who’s on it and who’s not.

There is a lot going on these days that could affect the Dolores Project and many recent events have received newspaper coverage. This column is intended to put these events into a broader context that will help those who are interested understand what is going on as this story continues to unfold.

One of four imperiled fish on the Colorado River will stay on the endangered species list at least another five years to ensure its numbers are rebounding. Colorado pikeminnows, once known as squawfish, are now most common in the Green and Yampa rivers, though the 15-mile stretch of the Colorado River through the Grand Valley that is considered critical to survival of the fish.